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October 8, 2008
New Zealand University Removes neo-Nazi Thesis
Sydney, Australia
JTA Wire Service
A New Zealand university removed a student’s thesis on neo-Nazism from its library. Waikato University made the move following harsh criticism from the key subject of the thesis, Kerry Bolton, a former secretary of the National Front who has been involved in neo-Nazi organizations on the island for more than two decades. The thesis by Roel van Leeuwen, 39, published six months ago, earned the philosophy student first-class honors under the co-supervision of Professor Dov Bing, an expert on Holocaust denial.
“Dreamers of the Dark: Kerry Bolton and the Order of the Left Hand Path, a case-study of a Satanic/Neo-Nazi Synthesis” was removed from the library and its online archive two weeks ago. Neither van Leeuwen nor Bing were notified of its removal, according to the university’s student newspaper, Nexus. In an Aug. 25 letter to the university’s vice-chancellor, Bolton wrote: “Having such a ‘thesis’ posted on the Internet amounts to what might be defined as criminal libel.” He demanded the removal of the thesis, the revocation of van Leeuwen’s masters degree and financial compensation for the “emotional and physical stress caused.”
A university spokesperson told the Waikato Times on Tuesday that the thesis was removed pending an inquiry into Bolton’s allegations. Van Leeuwen told Nexus he stood by his work. Bolton said he is a radical conservative rather than a Nazi sympathizer. He told Nexus he had “an open mind” on the Holocaust and that “it was worth raising” whether the gas chambers at Auschwitz could have killed “as many Jews as claimed.”
Billionaire Takes Helm of Ukraine Umbrella
Billionaire Igor Kolomoisky was elected president of an umbrella Jewish organization in Ukraine. Kolomoisky was the choice of some 2,400 delegates gathered in Kiev for the 2008 Congress of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine. He succeeds tycoon Vadim Rabinovich, who retired after 10 years leading the group. The election of Kolomoisky, an active member and sponsor of the Jewish community of Dnepropetrovsk, comes as little surprise for many Jews in Ukraine. He is a well-known businessman and media mogul who has donated millions of dollars to Jewish causes in Dnepropetrovsk. During the congress Kolomoisky said he planned to continue to develop Jewish community and combat xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Ukraine. While Rabinovich stepped down as the United Jewish Community’s leader, he still heads another Jewish umbrella group in Ukraine, the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress. There are as many as eight umbrella Jewish organizations in Ukraine.
Pope Kicks Off Televised Bible Reading
Reading aloud the first words of Genesis, Pope Benedict XVI kicked off a weeklong televised reading of the Bible. The pope began the “Bible Day and Night” marathon Sunday evening. Through Oct.. 11, more than 1,200 people will read the entire Old and New Testaments from beginning to end on Italian television around the clock. Church and political dignitaries, actors and other celebrities, and ordinary citizens are taking part in the readings. Readers include Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims. Roman Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni was to have been one of the readers, but he pulled out last month, saying that the arrangements for the marathon were too “rigorously Roman Catholic.”
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.